NFIB

Planning the Home Office
04/ 11/ 2002


We admit our home office isn't the picture of organization that Workshop contributor Amy Cates portrays in today's workshop. But we also know we'd get a lot more work done if it were! We're planning a reorganization after reading this inspiring piece -- how about you?

Whether you bring work home occasionally or are considering working from home full-time, you may be among the tens of thousands of people who are sectioning off a part of a residence as office space.

In deciding where your office will be, you need to choose from among three types of space: shared, common and dedicated. Shared space may be the corner of a bedroom or some other room designed generally for one use. Common space is generally a room where people congregate, such as the den or family room. Dedicated space is an area designed specifically for one purpose.

"You need to look at the type or variety of tasks, technology needs, storage needs, privacy, lighting and budget," says Alan Touart, vice president of sales for Birmingham's Bodine, Inc., which sells office furniture and offers a variety of workplace services.

Architect and space planner Ray Harris agrees. "It needs to have an identity and a sense of place. It needs to be something that has its own character and its own personality," he says. Just as a bedroom brings to mind a certain look, the home office will one day, too.

Once you decide where your office will be, it's time to get organized. The backbone of the organizing process is the filing or storage system. Mobile file carts and hanging folder carts make small office spaces accommodate a lot of material without cluttering up the work space -- a must for people simultaneously working on multiple projects.

Other tips:

Look at the lighting of the room planned as the home office. "There are so many more types of lighting than there were 20 years ago," Harris says. "Lighting sort of sets the mood for where you work." Basement rooms generally offer poor lighting, but it can be corrected with recessed lighting or installing a window if the house is on a sloped site.

Choose your office furniture carefully. Touart says a good highly adjustable chair and an articulating keyboard are two of the fundamental necessities of a home office and will grow with you as technology changes. Also, "your office furniture typically needs to blend in with the home," he says. It needs to look like it belongs, but should also perform like commercial furniture.

Assess your technology needs. According to Touart, the biggest challenge in choosing office furniture is accommodating the changing technology. Whether you use a desktop or laptop computer system, make sure you have the proper wiring -- a grounded dedicated electrical circuit (to protect your equipment during power surges) and a phone jack. Even if you don't have a computer or a modem yet, you probably will.

Remember, if you're going to be working regularly from the home office, seek a space that offers isolation from family and home activities. This is work space.

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